HISTORY AND MEMORY OF THE ITALIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS

The history of fascism in Italy has been extensively covered
while fascist Italy's role in
colonies before the war, and occupied areas during it, have only been
touched upon. There has been little
or no coming to terms with fascist crimes comparable to the French
concern with Vichy or even the
Japanese recognition of its wartime and pre-war responsibilities. This
article uses Italy's internment
policy in Africa before the war and in the Balkans and Italy during
the war to illustrate the repression
of historical memory. On the one hand, foreign Jews were interned to
protect them from deportation
by German, Croatian or Vichy French forces. The reasons were political
and humanitarian. On the
other, Balkan civilians were interned in conditions that led to the
death of thousands. Similar and
worse policies had been carried out in Africa before the war. There
is some excellent specialist work
on Africa which is not part of general knowledge; the Balkans have not
even been covered by
specialists. This article puts forward some explanations for the
repression of the recent past.